Tag Archives: cupcakes by xio

Here I am with a new recipe that I have to say really made me reminisce.

During my sophomore year of high school I met my best friend and started playing Volleyball on my schools team. These cupcakes, Peanut Butter, make me think back to one of my favorite memories of that year.

My best friend was at the time dating, or maybe she wasn’t dating him at that moment they may have just been talking I don’t remember exactly, a boy who freshman year I was embroiled in a feud to the death with. Danny was my mortal enemy and while we hadn’t quite settled our differences our shared love for my best friend meant that we couldn’t insult each other as viciously and constantly as we had the previous year. I can now say that one of my favorite qualities Danny posses is his cooking ability. Geez can that boy cook! He can also bake a mean peanut butter cupcake!

So here’s the scene, we’re all sophomores. We’re all silly, unmotivated, unfocused and definitely no where near proper and classes have just finished for the day. As per our traditions, we all gathered at another friends locker to wind down together before going to our respective activities or plans. I get to my friends locker and they’re huddled around the open door staring inside whispering and shushing each other. Anyone else would’ve thought “must be drugs or alcohol” but not with my friends. I instantly thought “They’ve either got food or a cat in there.” It was food.

Peanut butter cupcakes to be exact.

We began downing cupcakes once the hallway cleared of people we didn’t want to share with when we realized that there was left over frosting. Now it would be a lie if I said I didn’t occasionally still eat frosting straight out of the jar but what we did that day was more than eat. Somehow we ended up have a full blown frosting war. I had frosting in all the weirdest places once we were through. It was pretty darn delicious too!

So after a battle of the ages, I realize that practice was about to start and if I was late I would be doing laps for at least 10 minutes. So I ran down to the gym, into the changing rooms, and straight to the sink. I have never changed so fast for practice in my life. Once I’m ready coach and the rest of us all start warming up when my coaches attractive older son walks in, in work out clothes, with a volleyball in his hands. You could practically hear the hormones buzzing.

Later on in the practice coach split us into teams and we scrimmaged a game among ourselves. Guess who was my setter? Yep, you guessed it. While we’re playing coach calls a time to show one of the other girls better technique and I’m standing there trying to seem cool and nonchalant. His son looks at me and goes “Hey, Xio right?” and here I am a sophomore with a team of juniors and seniors surrounding me trying to be cool “Uh me? Yeah. What’s up?” He had the worlds most confused face as he raised his hand pointed at my ear and said “Whats that?”….I — obviously mortified– had to own up and try and make it seem like I had it all figured out. “Oh just frosting…We had a bit of a mishap while we ate cupcakes earlier.” He just stared at me. “Smacked. My best friend smacked me with frosting.” At this he laughed and thankfully my coach blew the whistle and we had no other choice but to focus.

You see cupcakes are magic. And this recipe will magic you up some delicious peanut buttery delectable-ness!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes!!!

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

2 whole eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup milk

So as usual this recipe was found on Pinterest on a blog called wishesndishes.com. My brother lovesssss peanut butter, and by loves I mean his idea of a snack is to take the enitre jar and a spoon to his room. And the best thing about this recipe is that is straight forward and simple.

Just mix all the ingredients with a mixer. Unlike my vanilla cupcakes where the frosting was more of a liquid this batter turns out much more thick. Mine looked like this:

After you mix everything up, line your cupcake tin and fill them up 2/3. Then bake for 20-25 min and let them cool on a rack.

Here are mine, sans frosting, don’t mind our Kool-Aid powder.

Simple right? I’m planing on some chocolate frosting, or maybe no frosting at all. Depending on what my brother thinks.

Well in my previous post I mentioned that while I wrote I had cupcakes in the oven. They followed the first (and so far only) cupcake recipe I posted and I was pretty content with how they came out. And then it hit me.

I had NO frosting.

The horror! My little cupcakes without frosting were practically boring muffins…okay maybe I’m over reacting. But a plain vanilla recipe could sure be sweetened up and frosting is always a good way to do so.

So I started to think. Option 1, run to the store. That wasn’t going to work for me seeing as the closest bodega has a rule where you have to spend a certain amount to be able to use your card and I didn’t have any cash. Option 2, make some frosting myself.

I was seriously considering leaving those cupcakes naked till tomorrow when I could muster up the oomph to go to the supermarket and buy store bought frosting. Then I found a box of practically untouched cream cheese in the fridge.

I opened my laptop and started Pinterest searching a recipe for cream cheese frosting like it was nobodies business. Personally I LOVE cream cheese frosting, especially on carrot cake. But, I had just managed to make consistent cupcakes from scratch. Safe to say I was slightly terrified.

Ingredients

Directions

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth.

Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. If necessary, slightly chill the frosting to stiffen it before using.

Now, you see I had most of the cream cheese so I decided that I could manage it. Then I realized that confectioners sugar would be my downfall. I once made Nutella Frosting for a new friends birthday and used regular sugar instead of confectioners sugar and it had this gritty grainy texture allllllllllll over. Everyone said (and by everyone I mean my family being as they were the only ones to see me after I sang happy birthday. I then quickly hid myself inside the car until it was time to go home.I got terribly anxious and I didn’t want to see anyone eat it, I’m weird like that) that other than the grittiness it was good. But they could have just been being polite.

This time though I decided to try out our blender. That thing destroys Ice cubes and makes the best sofrito (a spanish seasoning) although I guess I should give my mom more credit than the blender for that. I have read that it could take the place of a food processor on occasion.

So I dumped in some sugar, noting the texture before it went it, and hit grind. If you’re going to do this I recommend one cup or less at a time so as to not overwork your machine or make it too much to handle. After about a minute and a half I began to notice a significant difference. It wasn’t as fine as confectioners sugar straight from the store but it worked. Think funnel cakes at theme parks, confectioners sugar is what they put on top. That magically delicious stuff that gets all over you even if you don’t touch it and flies everywhere if you get caught in a breeze…now I’m craving funnel cake….

I then followed the instructions but put a cup and a half LESS of sugar in. My parents are always yelling that I make everything too sweet so I tried to tone it down a bit. (my mom still complained, I am not sorry).

It turned out pretty well I think. The texture is still a little grainy seeing as I probably should invest in confectioners sugar, but its not too bad.

When the directions mention you should chill the mixture first, CHILL IT.

Probably for at least 5-10 min. I chilled it for about 2 or 3 and it worked well but once I got it into the pastry back and started piping out frosting it warmed up quickly and didn’t go through the tip as defined as I’ve had store bought frosting come out. I only had one decent looking cupcake, which I am secretly okay with today. The fact that I’m mastering one cupcake recipe was enough for me. Here he is, I have named him Greg and after I post this, I shall eat Greg:

In my house, dessert and junk food have been known to be top priorities. I have to admit that we like food. We can’t help it. I mean I blame some of my dad’s weight on myself. When I was a kid I would cry and beg to go with him whenever he ran an errand because I knew that as daddy’s little girl I could bat my eyes at just the right moment and get something yummy to eat (sometimes fast food, sometimes bakery visits, or ice cream). I mean, he wasn’t skinny when I was a kid so its not entirely my fault but I have been pretty encouraging over the years when it came to food.

When we were kids my dad would bake cakes all the time. It was never from scratch but he would mix together the cake mix and I was always right there waiting for him to be done with the spoon, bowl, mixer– pretty much anything I could lick the batter off. That was me “helping.” When I got older I became the one who made our birthday cakes, again straight from the box and again with such excitement to lick the spoon. As the years passed though, and as I started watching more Ace of Cakes, Food Network Challenge, and Cake Boss, I began my obsession with making those birthday cakes beautiful.

Then came the cupcakes. I usually frequent Pinterest for recipes and DIY’s and today is no different.

This recipe from http://www.sallysbakingaddiction.com creates the simplest and tastiest vanilla cupcakes that I’ve found. And what’s great is that not only does she show you how to make the vanilla but the recipe is actually for FUNFETTI cupcakes! Who doesn’t love sprinkles?!

I personally am the kind of person that really adores sprinkles. Especially the rainbow kind! I put them on ice cream, cookies, cupcakes, cakes. If I don’t have anything to put it on and I have sprinkles, more often than not I will be eating some straight out of the container.

Unfortunately my family, that is to say the other three dessert eaters for whom I primarily bake for, don’t share my love for sprinkles. I blame myself. I should have educated them better. (only kidding, I respect it. Means more for me right? <– I am only partially kidding about that…) So I made cookies and cream. Oreos. Perfection in cookie form.

Have I mentioned that this is my first “How to”/tutorial post. Ever. So bear with me?

COOKIES AND CREAM CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

1 & 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, melted

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 Oreo cookies

If you’re more experienced and you are comfortable substituting things here and there as per your taste go right ahead. Most recipes call for unsalted butter, and this one was no different but I just used the butter we had. The pin I got the recipe from provided other substitutions for some of the other ingredients as well. The one that wasn’t included which I personally have used on multiple occasions was Maple syrup in place of the vanilla extract, but that’s another post.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F . Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a microwave-safe bowl melt butter in the microwave I recommend about 1 min, although my tech savvy brother says it all depends on the strength or wattage of your microwave.

Whisk in the sugar, this mixture will be gritty. Like sand in your coffee at the beach.

Chill in the refrigerator for 1 minute.

Stir in egg, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract until combined. Its going to look weird but its okay I promise (I’m the kind of person who gets weirded out just from looking at honeycombs…I don’t know why…but I assure you its going to be fine!)

Slowly mix in dry ingredients until no lumps remain. Using an electric mixer is okay too and is actually my preference.

Separate the cookies making sure that they separate cleanly. This is actually easier said than done. You want the cream on one side and the other side to be just cookie.

Put the cookie with the cream at the bottom of the cupcake liners. One cookie per liner and make sure to have the cream side up!

Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners (or 24 mini) and bake for up to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool and frost to your hearts desire!

And there they are! Honestly, pretty simple. And they taste wonderful!

Here are what mine turned out as

.

I clearly need to work on my cupcake photography skills but I can’t like that I didn’t love munching on those!

This is the original recipe –> http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2012/12/19/easy-homemade-funfetti-cupcakes/